FarmerDenise's journal - full on harvest time = busy, busy, busy

[Dace]

Happy belated Bday! I hope you ended up having a nice day.

Very kind of you to help out the homeless guy...sad situation

Chilly weather down here, how are you guys up there?

 

[FarmerDenise]

Bodice-ripper I was reading one of those

The weather was nice yesterday, today it looks like rain.

The homeless guy is an old friend of SO's. He is a sweet person. But he likes his beer He seems to like living the way he does. Kind of in the style that Hobos liked their freedom in days of old. He has his tent pitched in a vacant lot with the owner's permission. He has a dog. We are trying to tread a fine line between helping him out occasionally and inviting him to live with us on the property. So we feed him occasionally, rarely give him money, put air in his bicycle tire, give him extra food that a person without a stove or refrigerator can eat, and when someone gives us dogfood, that I won't feed our dog, I take it and give to our friend. He knows he has a place to come and hang out, be fed, get a smoke and be safe for a while. He is polite enough not to abuse it and we are cautious enough not to over extend ourselves. Something we have done numerous times before and got burned.

Today I want to focus on getting the goat fence up and running, so to speak. We left the goats in the chicken yard last night, since they had escaped their little nighttime pen again. I also need to come up with a shelter for them in their goat enclosure.
So I am off to read the instructions....

 

[murphysranch]

Just catching up on your posts, FD. Sounds like you are slowly getting better.

Yes, you are handling the homeless friend perfectly. A little love and compassion goes a long way.

My heart raced for a moment when I started to read about the pitbull, and your flock/gaggle/herd babies on your property! Good thing it all worked out in the end.

Yes, its overcast and cold here too - hi 40's/low 50's. Good thing I didn't plant my seedlings yet. Its supposed to be this way all week - an Alaska storm they said. What happened to spring. Will we jump right into Summer and 100 degrees? hope not...

oh, and Happy Belated Birthday. Now you're the same age as me! Young!!!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Thanks for all the birthday wishes.
Murphysranch, you got me pegged with that smiley

It is colder now than it was early this morning. Brrr.

 

[lorihadams]

hey,just catching up.....happy belated birthday!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Thanks!

I cannot believe we are about to have a serious rain storm!!!
It has been drizzling off and on all morning. We put away all the rain/winter stuff for the most part. I had to put up temporary shelters for the chickens and put their feeders under cover. Looks like I'll have to get may rainboots out again too. I came in soaked after looking after the animals this morning.

I did manage to clear the area by one side of the fence yesterday. This fence is encroached by the neighbors' wild blackberry vines and grapevines. The goats love the blackberries and I gave them some of the trimmings. But I had to cut back a lot more than they can eat. Now we will be able to attach the electric netting to that fenceline and use it as a gate. I still have to dig up the two blueberry bushes that grow there and figure out where I am going to replant them.
Next we'll get to figure out how to set up the electic parts. The charger came with a wire cable and a plug in charger and we are confused as to just how this works. I guess I'll have to read the directions and figure it out.

One of our neighbors is so excited that the goats are going to be on the other side of her fence. She keeps asking me how soon I'll be moving them
I told SO, we should invite them to come over, so she can play with the goats.
Apparently their is someone close in the neighborhood, who is not too happy about the noise the goats make. She said he is a crotchety old man, who doesn't like any noise.
Considering the noise made by all the roosters and dogs in the neigborhood, our goat's noises are barely audible.
Oh and then there are the low flying planes, the helicopters (especially the sheriff circling our area), the sirens, the speeders, the regular traffic, the people with the electic scooters (highpitched noise by a little 2 cycle engine), neighbor kids playing with paintball guns (that hit our truck), loud car radios (where you feel the music, before you hear it), the loudspeaker at the local school, the band practising at the high school, big trucks gowing by, revving engines, the peacocks someone in the neighborhood has, the parties at the park, the paging at the lumber yard, the traffic from the freeway, and people mowing or weedwhacking or leafblowing etc in their yards, oh and the crows make quite a racket too.
We rarely have a truly quiet moment.

 

[keljonma]

Apparently their is someone close in the neighborhood, who is not too happy about the noise the goats make. She said he is a crotchety old man, who doesn't like any noise.

Considering the noise made by all the roosters and dogs in the neigborhood, our goat's noises are barely audible.
Oh and then there are the low flying planes, the helicopters (especially the sheriff circling our area), the sirens, the speeders, the regular traffic, the people with the electic scooters (highpitched noise by a little 2 cycle engine), neighbor kids playing with paintball guns (that hit our truck), loud car radios (where you feel the music, before you hear it), the loudspeaker at the local school, the band practising at the high school, big trucks gowing by, revving engines, the peacocks someone in the neighborhood has, the parties at the park, the paging at the lumber yard, the traffic from the freeway, and people mowing or weedwhacking or leafblowing etc in their yards, oh and the crows make quite a racket too.
We rarely have a truly quiet moment.

Just catching up with you, FD. Happy Belated Birthday!


Gene Logsdon once said in an interview that he could not understand how people could complain to owners about hearing thier farmyard animal noises but would listen to continuously barking dogs all day long without calling the owners... At least the farmyard animals were productively giving back. Go figure.

I hope you don't have too many problems.....

 

[Henrietta23]

We live near a small airport with low flying planes constantly. No one complains about my rooster.
I must admit I don't even hear barking dogs unless they're my own. I just don't even notice. We neighbors with goats up until recently and I loved hearing them.

 

[TanksHill]

FD Sorry to hear about the rain. I wish it would come my way. For right now it's just May gray and cold for us.

I was wondering if you could give me the low down on collecting the mustard seeds. I was driving down the street today and there is mustard everywhere. Especially at my in laws.

Any info would be great.

Thanks, gina

 

[FarmerDenise]

As far as collecting the mustard seed goes, the mustard needs to be totaly dry and look like straw yellow. Then you can either gather the complete tops and get the seeds out later, or just go along with a unbreakable bowl in one hand and use the other to squeeze/crush the mustard pods. They split open and have a membrane in the middle. Seeds grow along both sides of the membrane, just strip those out. You'll have to winnow the seeds, because you will end up with lots of chaff.
I find sometimes it is easier to pick the top seedy part and then break open the pods at my leisure while sitting in comfort in the yard. I also found that by leaving the seeds and chaff sitting in the bowl for a while, that I could see little bugs crawling in there. I was then able to pick those out.